Tuesday, 26 June 2012

Considering the indubitable popularity of recent empyrean
voiced beauties such as Zola Jesus and Tamaryn, it is as frustrating as it is
fascinating that the Brooklyn-based brainchild of Zohra Atash, Religious To
Damn, is not the online pin-up of Pitchfork or headlining Hackney based festivals
that champion themselves on their cutting-edgeness.

Alas, it appears that the everlasting romance between
Religious To Damn and the music press was never meant to be. With the scarcity of
critics that took their time to review the band’s 2010 debut album ‘Glass
Prayer’ denoting, and therefore degrading, the record as ‘Kate Bush without the
weird’.

Despite the infant vilifying ‘Glass Prayer’ may have received,
Religious To Damn resurrected their career in January of this year with their
aesthetically Broadcast influenced ‘Lovely Day’. (which you can watch after the
jump.) The four and a half minute track,
that in-corporates a subtle blissed-out guitar as well as swooping synth-pads, enchantedly
glides along, almost as if it was the mysterious Ouija-board wielding grand-daughter
of the illustrious Lou Reed classic.

Despite this beautiful come-back single, Religious To Damn
still continue to be as under-rated as the film adaption of Twin Peaks, which
is a crying shame as front-woman Zohra has just as much poise and vocal ability
as Julee Cruise. We can only hope that Religious To Damn become a cult in
decades to come or ‘do a Grimes’ and orbit away from obscurity on their third
album, God knows they deserve it.

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

A debut album is easy when your ego has been
tickled by premature adoration and hype, but there has been an alarming
increase in deplorable plaid-clad boys and girls from the indie factory whose
second albums have just been churned out jaded versions of the debut.

‘Hidden’ the secondary album from These New
Puritans’ is, thankfully, an exception to this recent stupor of mediocrity.

“I’ve
been writing a lot of music for the bassoon” frontman
Jack Barnett in a 2008 interview shortly after the release of These New
Puritans critically acclaimed debut ‘Beat Pyramid’, who further went on to
extort than the bands new material sounded like “dancehall meets Steve Reich” Claims that would of undoubtedly
evoked a few sniggers from their contemporaries – here comes another vapid
indie band whose ideas outstrip their ability. But there was enough innovation
on ‘Beat Pyramid’ that suggested that these mystical sound engineers knew what
they were doing.

Unlike most artists, the band decided to not
rejoice in their well-deserved success of their debut, and instead disappeared
into the studio to play with brass instruments and six-foot Taiko drums. After
a year of obscure and perplexing posts on their official website, such as a
choir of primary school children and a melon being smashed up with a hammer, it
was obvious that something innovative and quite fantastic was going on in the
alternative music scene. Finally, in the last week of 2009, the ambitious ‘We
Want War’ was released.

‘We Want War’ is a triumph itself, an aural
accumulation that is as scary and gratifying as it is menacingly euphoric. The songs’ Portishead-esque sub-heavy beats,
droned bassoon, synthesised horns and sampled sound of a sword being sharpened
is somewhat reminiscent of the witchier material of Liars and truly requires
the listener’s full attention. Impressive, considering the un-edited cut is
over seven minutes long and doesn’t even have a bloody chorus.

The impressive heavy drum and brass duet is an
indubitably apparent overtone throughout the album, and is explicitly featured
in the track ‘Three Thousand’ where Jack Barnett soulfully delivers the lyric
“Three thousand thoughts in our minds”, and indeed, These New Puritans’ sonic
patchwork of an album contains more musical ideas than most established bands
have in their entire careers.

Another highlight from the album is the amply
named ‘Attack Music’ the name and energy of which conjures up a certain
rebellious punk-like attitude. But instead of three cord bass riffs and a
coked-up frontman, ‘Attack Music’ features “a
melon with cream crackers attached stuck by a hammer to simulate the sound of a
human head being smashed.” Genius.

‘Hidden’ is a record that truly set the
barrier for alternative music this decade, a record of breathtaking theoretical
scope that was worthy of being named NME’s top album of 2010. These New
Puritans are not a band set to please you, but they more than deserve your
attention.

Critical Analysis

When reviewing the album ‘Hidden’ by ‘These New Puritans’,
an important factor I took into consideration was the target audience for my
review. As the album is from a relatively unknown band it makes sense that it
would be unlikely for my review to be featured in a mainstream magazine. According
to theorists, “Chart music is usually the only kind of music mentioned in mainstream non-music orientated press”,
whereas mainstream music orientated magazines “tend to concentrate on a wider
spectrum of music, although there are subtle limitations to the music that will
be discussed” and anti-mainstream music will only be mentioned in “extremely
specific music publications”. (Jones, S. 2002)

Judging by the genre and popularity of the album I reviewed
I think that either a mainstream music magazine, specifically one like NME that
mainly concentrates on ‘indie’ music, rather than a magazine like Kerrang! whose
speciality is rock music, or a specific music publication, such as Artrocker,
that caters for underground ‘alternative’ music.

More attributes of my review that make it suitable for a
music orientated magazine, whether it be mainstream or not, is the length of my
review. My review is nearly 500 words which, according to Jones, S. 2002, is normal
for a downpage review in a music specific publication, whereas, an album review
in a non-music specific publication is usually less than a paragraph, and in some
cases won’t exceed a sentence (Jones, S. 2002)

Jones, S (2002). Pop Music and
the Press. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 186.

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Audio Addict is a music magazine produced entirely by
Southampton Solent University second year students. Throughout its twelve issue
run, and with the ruthless work of the students, the publication has bagged world
exclusive interviews with acts such as The Prodigy and Kasabian and a first class
reputation as a publication with a very impressive readership.

The twelfth issue of the magazine, an ‘Underground music
special’, features interviews with the bands Cardinals and Cancer Bats.

As Audio Addict is a student magazine, it makes sense that
the target audience for it are students. Audio Addict, according to theorists,
has outdone themselves journalistically in catering for its audience. It has
been quoted that young adults want
“searchable, effortless, shorter, more local, anytime news” (Zerba, A.
2009), with “an abundance of images and graphics” (Currie, H. 1999). As Audio
Addict is a web-zine, it is the definition of ‘anytime’ news, as It can be
accessed anywhere if the reader has a computer, making it searchable and
effortless to find. The magazine also champions itself on its aesthetic
qualities with an abundance of high quality photography and easy to read text.
The only complaint I can find with the magazine is the ‘rhythm’ of the front
cover. ‘Rhythm’ when put into the context of the principals of design allows designs to develop an internal consistency
that makes it easier for your customers to understand. The front cover
displays a large image and title of the band Cardinals, who are presumably the
main feature in the magazine, however, there is a small, ambiguous, image of
Cancer Bats in the corner of the magazine cover, with no information on who the
band is or what the feature is about. If I were to design the magazine I would
make sure that there is no ambiguity on my front cover, other than that, this
issue of Audio Addict is extremely successful as a stereotypical student
magazine.

Saturday, 12 May 2012

‘MARKY’S JUST
PASSED OUT ON THE BOG THE MAD OLD GIT’ bellows a swaying Farringdon clad lad.
Punk might not be dead, but its’ followers aren’t faring so well.

The year is
2012, and in a Welsh pub 50 miles south of somewhere, punk77 legends, The
Vibrators, are playing a selection of their 36 year old back catalogue, to a
moderately sized audience consisting of punks that never grew up.

Highlight of
the set comes in the form of the bands most notorious hit ‘Baby, Baby’ with
frontman Peter Honkamaki, who this evening has shown he is more than capable of
taking the egotistical frontman duties from Knox, howling in the unsuspected
crowd’s faces and saluting his Epiphone Thunderbird to the sky, simultaneously
knocking over the venue’s Christmas lighting décor. How’s that for anarchy in
the UK?

The set takes
a downward turn when the band showcases songs from their latest album ‘Under
the Radar’. Sweaty group photos are
taken, old punks stumble over their trashed Dr Martens to the bar and a
colossal sized gentleman, which could have well been a senior Vyvyan Basterd,
heckles ‘PLAY SOME OLD SONGS YOU FUCKING HIPPIES’.

Punk might not be dead, but I could probably drink
it under the table.

Critical Evaluation

As my review was on a gig of a punk band, plenty of mentions
to the bricolages of punk subculture are naturally in my review, such as
references to ‘Dr Martens’ and ‘Farringdon clad lads’. (Hebdidge quoting Ernst.
2008) The gig itself was exactly what a punk gig is expected to be like with its
“high energy…and abundance of audience participation” (O’Hara, 2000) so I tried
to convey this with aggressive adjectives such as ‘howling’ ‘saluting’ and ‘sweaty’,
to attempt to recreate the gigs atmosphere. Although I am pleased with my
review on a whole, I admit I did not think about my target audience when
writing it. The use of taboo language in my review rules out the possibility of
it being used in a mainstream magazine/webzine and the fact that the gig was a
small event in a small venue further rules out this possibility. The most appropriate
place for this review to be published is a blog, and alas, that is where it is.

Imagine if Poly Styrene was still in her early twenties
but was given a taste for the golden age of Stax Records and the Muscle Shoals
Sound Studio.

Only with that quantity of female bad-assery, could you
ever hope to reproduce the sun-drenched, Rock and Soul debut ‘Boys & Girls’ from Brittany Howard’s
Alabama Shakes.

‘Boys & Girls’ contains a bit of blues, a bit of rock
‘n’ roll and a hell of a lot of soul. In stand-out track ‘Hold On’, Howard
literally counts her blessings and ponders the existence of a higher deity,
whereas in ‘I Found You’ Howard’s scat section brings up a reminiscence of
Janis Joplin while the rest of the band
play with raw simplicity that wouldn’t
be out of place on a White Stripes record.
It should come to no surprise that Jack White is a fan of the band,
presumably as it is difficult to find another band since the White Stripes
whose music reflects their roots so perfectly.

In a genre where females are regularly banished behind a
bass drum it is as inspiring, as it is exciting, that a band with a front-woman
can create music that transcends notions of ethnicity and era so spectacularly.

Critical Evaluation

As a female music critic reviewing an album by a female
fronted band, it is predictable that my review on Boys & Girls by Alabama
Shakes highly concentrates on gender. It has been cited by critics that female
journalists writing about female artists can either be “extremely reluctant to
compliment the artist” or, on the contrary, “are highly complementary of the
artist and her work” (Jones, S. 2002). As my review is positive, my language
reflects this, I do not use words such as ‘girls’ that infantilises women, but
instead I use standard nouns such as ‘female’ and ‘front-woman’, the only time
I really correlate gender with being a positive influence on the music is with
my term ‘female bad-assery’. On a whole I am pleased with my review, I feel as
if I make my point effectively and it displays my knowledge of music, I think
my review would fit in perfectly in any mainstream music paper.

References;

Jones, S (2002).Pop Music and the Press.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 55.

Thursday, 10 May 2012

Third Man Records, the home of the prodigious Jack White,
dirty blues rock revival and the strangest musical collaborations ever?

That’s right kids; forget Metallica and Lou Reed’s doomed ‘Lulu’,
obliterate the memory that Ozzy Osbourne recorded a cover with an overweight potty-mouthed
pig (literally). Independent labels are renowned for breaking the boundaries
and sticking two fingers up to conformist culture, but by the way of
collaborations go; Third Man Records takes the crown, shatters it to tiny
pieces and crams it into the windpipes of any future concordant conformist collaborations.
Here are some of the finest:

Jack White & Insane Clown Posse – Leck Mich Im Arsch

Jack White and the sexist, testosterone fuelled alter egos
of Jedward, doing a rap metal cover of a Mozart sample that translates to “Lick
Me in the Arse”. Why Jack, why?

Stephen Colbert & The Black Belles – Charlene II (I’m
Over You)

American satirist & TV host Stephen Colbert teamed up
with Third Man’s all-girl goth outfit The Black Belles last summer to release a
homage to stalking your ex-girlfriend. As amusing as it is awesome it also
remains the most bad-ass record with a whistling solo.

Tom Jones & Jack White – Evil

71 year old Welsh crooner and NME’s poster-boy of the 2000s
coming together to record a Howlin’ Wolf cover shouldn’t sound this good. A
whiskey-soaked romping stomper of a good time.

Foster the People & Luke Pritchard – Hold On

LA Indie-pop trio Foster the People teamed up with Kooks
(remember them?) front-man last week to cover ‘Hold On’ by Third Man darlings Alabama
Shakes. Although it misses the sun-drenched, rock’n’soul vibes of the original, Pritchard & Co deliver a justified indie-pop makeover.

For a musician who’s spent the last three decades aurally assaulting
unsuspecting music fans, it is near criminal to attempt to throttle his
impressive back-catalogue to three records. But, after much debate and procrastination,
The Orbiting Beatnik presents to you the holy trinity of Lee Ranaldo records.

The Father

Lee Ranaldo – Between
the Times and the Tides

Lee Ranaldo’s first full-length attempt as a singer and
songwriter comes in the form of 47 minutes of stripped down rock’n’roll. Whilst
No-Wave reminiscers expecting a noise-rock masterpiece may be disappointed that
the inspirational touchstones for ‘The Times and The Tides’ comes in the shape
of The Rolling Stones. This, added with the albums psychedelic overtones, accumulates in one damn fine rock’n’roll
record.

The Son

Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation

Often cited as the bands tour de force, Daydream Nation is
where Ranaldo first grappled the microphone from his limelight-hogging
bandmates and became everyone’s favourite Sonic Youther. From Ranaldo’s
surrealist masterpieces ‘Hey Joni’ and ‘Rain King’ that incorporated Ranaldo
bellowing hypnagogic lyrics over face-shattering guitar shredding, to the now
legendary LSD & Warhol-influenced anthem ‘Eric’s Trip’. Ranaldo’s contributions
to Daydream Nation are what make it a true masterpiece.

The Holy Ghost

Sonic Youth – Bad Moon Rising

The band’s schizoid sophomore album is No-wave noise rock at
its finest. Ranaldo’s extensive use of prepared guitar in ‘I Love Her All the
Time’ and brief stint on the acoustic guitar for ‘Ghost Bitch’ emphasises his
sheer talent, and accumulates with one bloody brilliant record.

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Later… With Jools
Holland is often cited as a programme that introduces new artists to the
kind of people who shop at Marks & Spencer and think that Keane still have
indie-cred. It is a surprising, yet, wonderful fact however, that alternative,
electro-pop pixie Claire Boucher’s (aka Grimes), debut UK TV appearance was on
last nights Later…

The performance, which you can watch below, shows everybody’s
favourite electronic IT girl performing her latest single ‘Genesis’, all whilst
sporting an anomalous bindi in the shape of a third eye. Aesthetically, think
Little Boots if she was born the same way as the namesake of ‘Rosemary’s Baby.’

The track itself sounds like a cuddlesome Kraftwerk, with its
acerbic beat and heavy synth bassline, all topped off by Boucher’s trademark
squeaks and choir-like cooing creating a fantastical fairytale of sound to
match the colourful decoration and soothing lighting around her.

Grimes’ performance was the undeniable highlight of the show,
the rest of which can be watched here.